If you’re on PC, the best Resident Evil game of all time has also, until now, been one of the hardest to access and play. Capcom’s survival horror series has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years, courtesy of the RE2 Remake, the remake of Resident Evil 4, and rumors of RE9 now starting to swirl. But despite all these modern advancements, technical leaps, and bold reimaginings, the best Resident Evil ever made remains the very first game from 1996, and now it’s finally easy to get on PC, with more classics on the way.
Resident Evil pioneered the survival horror game, building on the foundations laid by Alone in the Dark and Capcom’s own Sweet Home to deliver something which, at the time, was unprecedented. A Windows version did exist, and even included bonus weapons and the option to skip the door animation loading screens between rooms, but unless you’ve got a disc drive and you’re able to find an old copy online somewhere, legitimately playing Resident Evil on PC has been impossible – until now.
Available today, the original Resident Evil is now live on GOG. This isn’t a remaster, or another relaunch of the extremely inferior remake from 2002 – this is the original game in all its purity and glory. Frightening, visionary, simple, fast, and funny, the first Resident Evil has the charm of a low-budget horror movie; a tongue-in-cheek passion project driven by spectacular gore effects and campy laughs.
There are some tweaks for the GOG version like new rendering options and support for modern controllers. Also, this is the full uncut version. In some regions, the opening cutscene of Resident Evil was edited down and regraded into black and white – this GOG release restores all the goriest moments in full color.
And there’s more to follow. The original Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 are arriving on GOG in the near future, meaning the full RE trilogy will finally be easily playable on PC. We’re still waiting on launch dates for those. In the meantime, Resident Evil is available on GOG for $11.37 / £8.99, and you can pre-order the trilogy bundle for $26.56 / £20.99. Just head here.
Otherwise, return to the golden era with some of the best old games you can get on PC, or maybe up the tension with the best survival games ever made.
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